The Broward County Talking Book Library, located in the Main Library, provides recorded and Braille reading material to people who cannot use print books because of a visual or physical disability. Books and magazines on tape, materials in Braille, and print/Braille children’s books can be checked out at the library or mailed postage-free to and from customers’ homes. Special cassette players and headphones are also loaned free of charge.

Whether you enjoy fiction or nonfiction, bestsellers or classics, the Talking Book Library has something for you.

How to Apply

To begin enjoying the library’s collection of Talking Books, simply fill out an application. There are several ways to get an application:

You must include a note from a doctor or other qualified person, or have them sign the application, certifying that you cannot use ordinary reading materials because of a visual or physical disability.

Getting Started

Once you are a registered customer, you will receive a talking book machine and catalogs telling you about the newest talking book titles. Please let Library staff know if you prefer to receive the catalogs in large-print, Braille or on digital cartridge. You can call the library and ask for any book by title, subject or author, or you can indicate on the application the type of books you like and let the library staff choose some for you.

Talking books require a special machine, which is provided free of charge.

Talking Book machines and books are mailed as “Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped.” The talking books are mailed in small mailing containers. When you are finished with a book, simply turn the mailing card over to display the return address. You can then drop the talking book in a mailbox or give it to your mail carrier, and it will be returned to the library.

About the Talking Book Library

Broward County Talking Book Library is a cooperating library in the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Network, as well as a partner with the Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Services in Daytona Beach, and the Florida subregional library network.

The first Talking Book Library in Florida opened in 1950 in Daytona Beach. Florida’s Bureau of Braille and Talking Book Library Service (which provides books and materials to Talking Book customers statewide) serves more than 39,000 Floridians.

The Broward County Talking Book Library opened in 1977. In 2012, we provided 131,000 talking books to nearly 3,000 Broward County customers.